Monday, April 11, 2016

Oakland, California to Cheyenne, Wyoming, 1890

From: "Mac Simpson" mackinnon96816@gmail.com

Aloha,
My name is MacKinnon Simpson. I am a writer/designer in Honolulu. I have done two pictorial histories on rail in Hawaii:
Next Stop Honolulu—The Story of Oahu Railway & Land Company; and,
Streetcar Days in Honolulu—Breezing through Paradise..

Right now I am working on a book about Honolulu Harbor. Three of the people being featured left Honolulu on the steamer Australia in early July, 1890, bound for San Francisco. Their eventual destination was Springfield, Massachusetts. I am trying to flesh out the first part of their trek and have a number of questions:

1) Would they have originally boarded the train on the Oakland Long Pier?

2) We know that they occupied the “drawing car Vinta” (perhaps Uinta).
• Are there any specific descriptions of this car or any like it?
• Are there any photos?
• Did it include sleeping quarters?

3) We know they arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming at 5:05 am on July 19, 1890.
• When would the train have left San Francisco?
• Are there any timetables that could be scanned as an illustration?
• Did the train have a name?
• Where would they have transferred to the Union Pacific to continue east?

Thanks very much, and I will acknowledge your efforts in the book.

—Mac Simpson